London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

A man was killed and 13 people injured when a car involved in a suspected 100mph road race smashed into a night bus early today.

The driver of a blue Audi died, later named by police as 25-year-old Delano Moore from the E4 area of London, and his front-seat passenger was fighting for his life in hospital.

Two other passengers in the car were also seriously hurt while 10 people on the N38 bus suffered cuts and bruises in the crash in east London. The bus, a new double-decker Routemaster, was travelling towards Whipps Cross when the accident happened in Lea Bridge Road, at the junction with Essex Wharf outside the Lea Valley Ice Centre.

The bus driver reportedly told a colleague the cars had been racing at speeds between 90mph and 110mph — and the colleague then texted a description to other bus drivers.

The scene is cleared after the crash in Clapton, Hackney
It read: “The N38 was travelling towards Walthamstow at 20mph. Two cars were racing at between 90mph and 110mph as the N38 was approaching an island.

“The gap was closing in as one car tried to take over another car, where the car went head on with the bus.

“One passenger in the car flew through the windscreen, the driver died and the passenger survived.”

Scotland Yard refused to comment officially, saying only : “It is believed that the car was travelling with or closely behind another vehicle along Lea Bridge Road. The driver of this second vehicle may be a vital witness and is urged to contact police.”

The blue Audi is thought to have been driving on the wrong side of the road when it hit the bus, whose driver had veered on to a grass bank in a bid to avoid the collision. All those in the car are said to be men aged in their early to mid-twenties. Fire crews had to cut the back seat passengers free.

The wrecked car lay across a central reservation next to traffic lights close to the ice centre early this morning. The bus stood nearby, its right front corner crumpled and its left side angled into a grassy verge. Rose Friggi, 32, a mother-of-two from nearby Paradise Park, said: “I was up in the night because my baby was sick. I heard what sounded like an explosion. My husband went to work at about 3am and he said there were police cars and a helicopter at the scene.”

Said Mohamed, 52, a security guard at a Thames Water depot close to the scene, said his colleague heard a crash just after 2am: “He said it was so loud. He went out to look at what had happened. The whole front of the car was almost underneath the bus and it was panic and chaos.

“There were injured people in the road. He said seeing it all was very difficult. A lot of people are hurt and the emergency services were trying to save people in the car.

“There were police cars and ambulances everywhere. The car must have been coming in the opposite direction and must have lost control.”

Paramedics treated the injured bus passengers before a number were taken to hospital by another bus. It is believed they had minor injuries.

There were 12 passengers on the bus. The bus driver was among the injured. He was taken to hospital but released after treatment.

The road reopened shortly before 10am, after both the Audi and the bus were towed away for analysis.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson told LBC Radio this morning: "All I can really say is that it doesn't look to us as though the bus driver was at fault, but clearly there will have to be an investigation."

Anyone with information or who witnessed the collision is asked to call police on 101.